Playing dress-up

Yesterday I went and did some errands, and was still feeling kinda down, so I went and browsed through Anthropologie. I almost never do that --- and I'm quite proud of myself that I didn't try anything on or buy anything just weeks before packing and moving all my stuff cross-country --- but this time I looked about, and I was surprised by how much stuff I liked. I love the idea of ruffles and complex constructions and general girlyness, but can't stand to wear it. In real life I am very plain and unfussy --- any jewelry, I'm going to get caught in something. Any ruffles or bows or loose floaty bits hanging off me are going to get me very nervous and I'll be fidgeting at it. Any patterns and I will instantly feel like I am standing out too much in the crowd and will be stared at. Any flower prints and I will puke.

So I was surprised that I really liked a lot of the stuff in the store. A lot was with the feeling of, "oh, this is so not me, but it is gorgeous!" or, "Ooh, I hate that color and yet the garment is so interesting!" or even "Ooh, ugly! In that fashionable, twee kinda way! I wish I could go for the ugly look!"

Today I did more errands and stuff and now am passing the time with this thingy I have seen some fashion bloggers use called polyvore. I thought it would be fun, like playing with dolls and window shopping without the effort of putting on clothes or paying for anything. What's interesting is that it's actually very hard. I may have a good eye for what's interesting, but I have no skill at putting an outfit together, which explains why I have trouble buying things and getting dressed.

So first, let's see just a jumble of all the stuff I liked:

See the problem? Even if you ignore the fact that I can't fit into any of their pants and so I didn't add them, I don't have any outfits here. I also tend to buy/choose tons of stuff in my favorite colors but then they don't work together or contrast well enough to wear them as an outfit.

It also made me realize why they have all those shitty boring noncolors out there; you know, the "brown" that you're not sure if it's gray or not and it's really not a color at all, maybe it's mouse brown or something? Well if you want to layer loud colors with something not loud, you need a white or a taupe or a mouse brown. Interesting. I will ponder that. I also noticed while culling through the anthropologie website that all the fancy fussy little things like smocking or embelleshments or draping don't show up on darker colors --- which makes sense. I tried to knit patterns in some of my favorite darker colors like navy and it was just pointless, you couldn't see all the detail. For example, here are two colors of the dimpled cardigan at Anthropologie:



Why you would want something that has been named "the dimpled cardigan" is another post entirely.

Third, I noticed that if you want to have some sort of embellishment or 3-dimensional thing up at your neckline, you can have it either on a shirt or on a top layer like a coat or sweater, because if you layer something with embellished flowers on top of a big poofy set of pleats or ruffles, you will end up having the weirdest lumpy profile. And at this point I just about gave up again, because that means I have to either pick ruffly tops or ruffly cardigans, or buy so many shit-tons of clothing that I can mix and match without constantly going "dammit! there's too much poofyness in the clothes I want to combine today!"

This may put me back off fashion. Of course, the prices on all the fancy twee clothes I like put me off it too.

Finally, trying to match up outfits on the computer, even with a program like polyvore that makes it easier for you, is nothing like the ease of running back and forth inside a store to hold things up next to each other. I have to do actual coding and cutting and pasting and it is not quite so fun as shopping or playing with the dolls of yesteryear. But still, here I am trying out the program and my outfit-making skills:

first polyvore! by Sisyphuscog featuring Anthropologie

As you can see I don't really have the hang of getting rid of the background blurs yet. To say nothing of my attempts at taste.

And to assure you that this has not completely become a fashion blog, I have to wonder, in relation to my earlier request for some theory background, how all this participatory creation --- whether it be making outfits in polyvore or fashion blogging or uploading photos of yourself in your outfits --- relates to Althusser's concept of interpellation? Who's calling? Who's answering? Are we interpellated today much more often and more securely through consumption than the State? How does the participatory, creative aspect of self-fashioning work in with all this?